A new joint-commissioned report from DARPA, the CIA, and Homeland Security has concluded that the current state of biometrics–the technology that can identify individuals based on unique characteristics such as fingerprints, retinal and voice patters, or facial features–is “inherently fallible.”

The report argues that the technology may be used for certain small-scale tasks, however it will cause major problems if utilized in a wide-scale framework.

There are two main problems, the report argues, with the current state of biometrics. One, the systems rely on probabilistic results, they inherently rely on a certain degree of uncertainty. And also the technology assumes that the parameters it uses are static. Humans are mushy bags of tissue and organic material–our bodies change over time due to injury, disease, age, or any number of variables. This can lead to false-negatives or the inability to create an ID at all.

Security-minded folks have invested much time and effort into biometrics
over the past decade. This has largely been in reaction to a post 9-11 world, but more accurately, it is a reaction to increased access to affordable international travel. Advances in transportation have transformed
humans into a truly borderless species. There are many advantages to
breaking down barriers, both physical and otherwise. Unfortunately, it hasn’t all been kumbaya. As technology has evolved us physically, we haven’t
completely evolved sociologically to accommodate our new powers of
distance-bridging–we are still prone to tribal instincts and conflict
and we’re still, as a species, inherently prone to corruption. That’s
why those who seek to maintain order would love to harness the power to
identify an individual beyond the shadow of a doubt. Biometrics are
already being utilized by coalition and local security forces in Iraq
and Afghanistan and, more recently, have been implemented by the Indian government
in a nation-wide bid to ID its citizenry.

Privacy advocates will be disheartened to hear that this probably doesn’t mark the end of biometric technology. It does mean that the human power behind the technology will have to be trained to deal with the inconsistencies and the technology will be forced to innovate beyond where it is now.